{"id":10994,"date":"2026-02-17T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/10994\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:30:07","slug":"what-rolex-shortage-the-top-10-swiss-watch-brands-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/10994\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rolex Shortage? The Top 10 Swiss Watch Brands Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jacob<\/a><\/p>\n

Readtime: 4 min<\/p>\n

Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more.<\/a> For more information on how we test products, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Investment bank Vontobel has released its annual report on the Swiss watch industry<\/a>, revealing a decline in global exports from 2024 to 2025. Total exports amounted to CHF 25,552 million ($AUD84.85m) in 2025, representing a 1.7% decrease over the previous year. But despite the decline, Rolex remains the undisputed apex player in the industry.<\/p>\n

Contributing factors included economic uncertainties in key regions such as China and Japan, where Swiss watch sales nosedived relative to other markets around the globe.<\/p>\n

In the USA\u2014the world\u2019s largest importer of Swiss watches by a wide margin\u2014unpredictable tariffs became a predictable disruptor. As an anticipatory measure, exports to the USA surged just before the tariffs were issued, and wavered thereafter. By the end of 2025, exports of Swiss watches to the USA decreased by 0.5% overall, with a strong December counterbalancing some of the weaker months.<\/p>\n

Upon closer inspection, Vontobel\u2019s report revealed that watches with an export price of CHF 3,000 or above declined 1.9%, while watches with an export price between CHF 500 and 3,000 went more or less unchanged. The biggest drop was for watches with an export price below CHF 500, which decreased by 4.5% overall. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, leading watchmaker Rolex is still king of the jungle, and it\u2019s not even close. Despite a notable decrease in production (aka the purported Rolex shortage<\/a>), the brand outpaced the competition on every possible front. In fact, Rolex sales roughly amounted to the next four competitors combined. The watchmaker\u2019s Certified Pre-Owned program \u2013 which contributes greatly to overall sales \u2013 was likewise a juggernaut, to the point that it almost made the top ten as its own respective entity.<\/p>\n

Further Reading
\n Top 10 Swiss Watch Brands in 2025 <\/p>\n

The Swiss watch industry might be down at large, but things are looking up for Rolex<\/a>. With the brand\u2019s continuing reign over the luxury market comes an increasingly larger slice of the global pie. According to reports, the Big Crown accounted for approximately 61% of global sales for watches with an export price over CHF 3,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Rolex\u2019s dominance also makes up part of a broader industry trend, whereby the top luxury brands are creating a bottleneck. Or, to quote Vontobel, \u201cThe industry is becoming increasingly oligopolistic.\u201d Specifically, the top ten Swiss brands accounted for 80% of export volumes for watches valued at CHF 3,000 or higher in 2025. <\/p>\n

Vontobel analysts also pointed to Rolex\u2019s decrease in production for two years in a row as a matter of calculation over supply constraints, concluding that the drop in units is \u201cmost likely by design, as the brand prioritises scarcity and pricing power over incremental unit growth.\u201d Whatever the reasons, the move is clearly paying off, as Rolex retains the lion\u2019s share of the global market both through new releases and the Certified Pre-Owned program.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of the top ten Swiss Watch brands that were exported in 2025:<\/p>\n

BrandSalesRolexCHF 10,473 millionCartierCHF 3,354 millionAudemars PiguetCHF 2,436 millionPatek PhillipeCHF 2,351 millionOmegaCHF 1,677 millionRichard MilleCHF 1,516 millionLonginesCHF 1,070 millionVacheron ConstantinCHF 922 millionBreitlingCHF 751 millionTissotCHF 700 million<\/p>\n

Scroll horizontally to view full table<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned program reported export sales of around CHF 500 million, placing it just outside of the Top 10. <\/p>\n

Swiss Watch Exports by Market in 2025 <\/p>\n

Each of the four largest markets \u2013 the USA, Japan, China, and Hong Kong \u2013 imported fewer Swiss watches in 2025 than in 2024. However, smaller markets such as Spain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia increased the number of imports. The overall export volume of CHF 25,552.4 million represented a decrease of 1.7% from 2024 to 2025. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at the top Swiss watch exports by market in 2025:<\/p>\n

USA \u2013 CHF 4,352.9 million (-0.5%) Japan \u2013 CHF 1,850.9 million (-5.8%) China \u2013 CHF 1804.4 million (-12.1%) Hong Kong \u2013 CHF 1,790.8 million (-6.5%) United Kingdom \u2013 CHF 1,718.9 million (+0.1%) Singapore \u2013 CHF 1,632.7 million (+0.7%) France \u2013 CHF 1,329.1 million (+1.3%) UAE \u2013 CHF 1,316.2 million (+3.5%) Germany \u2013 CHF 1,217.4 million (-6.8%) Italy \u2013 CHF 1,044.4 million (-0.5%) South Korea \u2013 CHF 792.3 million (+2.4%) Spain \u2013 CHF 509.5 million (+5.3%) Australia \u2013 CHF 424.9 million (+3.5%) Taiwan \u2013 CHF 403.7 million (-0.6%) Saudi Arabia \u2013 CHF 352.1 million (+8.9%)<\/p>\n

Should certain trends continue, 2026 may see another decline in overall Swiss watch sales around the world. Some of the lesser-known brands may find it increasingly difficult to penetrate the global market as power players consolidate their grip on the luxury sector. <\/p>\n

Even the best-known brands, however, must kneel before Rolex as the watchmaker expands upon its empire, churning out fewer products at higher price points while simultaneously crushing it through their secondhand program. The times they are a-changing, but a Rolex is still a Rolex. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Readtime: 4 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1658,41,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-10994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-rolex","9":"tag-swiss","10":"tag-switzerland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}